The present invention concerns a mounting apparatus for mounting a rotary member such as a motor vehicle wheel to a drive means of an unbalance measuring arrangement, for the purposes of measuring any unbalance of the rotary member.
A mounting apparatus for clamping a rotary member to the drive means of an unbalance measuring arrangement to carry out an unbalance measuring operation on the rotary member, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,658, comprises an axle or spindle which is stationary during the measuring run and which can be fixedly connected to a shaft of the drive means of the unbalance measuring arrangement. The drive means comprises a hub which is mounted on its shaft while the mounting apparatus has an entrainment disc which can in turn be connected to the hub on the shaft of the drive means, for example by flange configurations and fixing screws. The spindle of the printing apparatus projects through a central bore in the entrainment disc so that the rotary member, the unbalance of which is to be measured, can be fitted on to the spindle of the mounting apparatus by means of bearing assemblies which are carried in the rotor itself, whereby the rotor is mounted rotatably relative to the stationary spindle of the clamping apparatus, for performing the measuring run. The spindle of the mounting apparatus may be of a suitable configuration for receiving the rotary member, and an additional centering portion may also be fitted on to and then fixed on the spindle of the mounting apparatus, to hold the member rotatably in a centered condition on the spindle. Members on the entrainment disc then engage the rotary member to produce the rotary movement thereof, for example if the rotary member is in the form of a spoked wheel, the entrainment disc can carry entrainment pins which are secured thereto in such a way as to project in the axial direction of the rotary member, through the spaces between spokes thereof, so that when the hub of the drive means is driven in rotation by a drive motor, the rotary member is also rotated.
That mounting apparatus can be used for measuring unbalance of rotary which can only be fitted on to relatively thin mounting members, that is to say the fixed spindle referred to above, which is a thin spindle. The rotary members in that respect are more particularly those which are fitted on to the spindle of the mounting apparatus by means of their own bearing assemblies. Members of that nature are, for example, spoked wheels such as motorcycle wheels. The above-discussed apparatus makes it possible for members of that kind which are relatively heavy in relation to the bending strength of the thin spindle on which they are mounted to be measured in respect of unbalance thereof, without flexing and bending of the mounting spindle causing the measurement values obtained to be falsified. However that apparatus does require a specific configuration in respect of the drive means, with a hub which rotates about the shaft of the drive means and to which the mounting apparatus is suitably connected.